VICTORY AT THE TEMPLE OF SPEED!!

The story of success continued in early June for Ben Tuck when he and his Al Manar Racing by WRT co-drivers, Al Faisal Al Zubair and BMW factory driver Jens Klingmann took the Gold class win in the second round of GT World Challenge Europe at the historic Temple of Speed, Monza, placing Tuck at the top of the Gold Class Endurance Cup drivers’ standings. The class victory also netted the #777 BMW drivers fourth place overall out of 59 entrants and comes after the trio found the podium in Round 1 at Paul Ricard in France in April.

Ben Tuck has already tasted success this year with the Al Manar Racing by WRT team in the BMW M4 GT3 Evo when they won the Dubai 24 Hours back in January and this latest result confirms the crew as a formidable force in this year’s ultra-competitive championship.

For qualifying, all three drivers were allocated an eight-minute stint to contribute to an overall average qualifying position. The high-speed Monza circuit is particularly affected by traffic with cars attempting to give themselves critical clear space ahead to get the best lap, but by the end of qualifying the crew of the #777 BMW had managed to claim seventh in class and 31st overall for the three-hour race.

Al Faisal Al Zubair took the start for the frantic charge down to the first corner chicane, which is always a source of incident. However, the Omani driver somehow managed to emerge almost unscathed gaining two places in a mass confusion of incidents but losing his rear bumper, which came off cleanly and did not hamper performance for the remainder of the race. A safety car was quickly called to clear up the aftermath, after which the race settled into a pattern of sprints separated by several periods of Full Course Yellow flags. By lap 35 with 1 hour and 45 minutes to go, Al Zubair was preparing to pit for the first scheduled driver change.

Just at that point another incident resulted in yet another Full Course Yellow (FCY) flag and the team reacted instantly, quickly calling AL Zubair in for the stop whilst the rest of the field were slowed to the FCY speed of 80kph. A flawless pitstop and driver change saw Ben Tuck at the wheel of the #777 car emerge leading the Gold class and up to 12th overall.

The Safety Car was then called out which closed up the field and, now in the lead of the Gold class, Tuck set his sights on his overall race position. When the race resumed at the green flag, Ben pounced immediately taking 2 positions in as many corners.

Tuck then made short work of the opposition, quickly taking a further three positions across three laps. In less than 10 laps, Ben had climbed from 12th position overall to sixth and was not finished. After another Full Course Yellow interruption, he claimed fifth at the restart and just 3 laps later had found third place overall, still with a commanding lead of the Gold class.

With 44 minutes left in the race, the time had come for Tuck to pit his BMW for Jens Klingmann to bring the car home. After rejoining in sixth place overall, Klingmann still held the Gold class lead as he set about reeling in the cars ahead and within two laps he had found fourth place overall. With an overall podium beckoning he fought to close the gap, but another two Full Course Yellow periods hampered his progress, and after 83 dramatic laps the chequered flag fell with the Al Manar Racing by WRT BMW less than a second behind third place overall but having taken an emphatic maiden GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup victory.

Ben was elated at the result, “What a day, P1 in the Gold cup and P4 overall in a field of 59 cars! It was a perfectly timed strategy call from the team to use a FCY to our advantage and a perfect pit stop. It was a huge team effort to get that win, with lots of work done to the car overnight after practice and superb stints from my co drivers Al Faisal Al Zubair and Jens Klingmann. I have to say thank you to them and the Al Manar Racing by WRT team for all the amazing hard work!”

Ben next races in the greatest race of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 14th and 15th June 2025.